Article excerpt

AUSTIN - A sweeping interstate banking measure designed to allow
out-of-state institutions to acquire Texas banks and thrifts was
passed overwhelmingly by the Texas House Tuesday.

The House approval, on a 116-24 vote, follows approval by the
Texas Senate last week.

The measure is expected to go to Democratic Gov. Mark White,
possibly by the end of the week, and White has indicated that he will
sign the bill.

The interstate banking measure would allow an out-of-state
financial institution to acquire a Texas bank, bank holding company
or savings and loan. However, an institution could not acquire both
a bank and a thrift.

Effective Jan. 1, 1987, any bank from any state could buy any
Texas bank - "healthy or sick," according to Jim Sexton, the Texas
banking commissioner.

The bill also doesn't require an acquiring institution's state to
have enacted an interstate banking measure. The Texas measure will
allow takeovers Jan. 1, but acquisition talks could begin at anytime.

The speedy action by the Texas legislature reflects what some
state officials are calling a ''banking crisis'' in Texas as problems
with energy, real estate and agriculture loans are prompting big
losses for some leading texas banking concerns.

Federal and state regulators say there is a growing need for some
of these banks to bolster capital, and the best source for funds is
likely to come from out-of-state bankers. The prospect of opening
the huge Texas banking market to outsiders is prompting a frenzy of
speculation in the stock of some Texas bank whose prices had been
falling until recently.

"The Oklahoma law is a little more restrictive than ours," Sexton
said. …